What Are Your Favorite Video Games?[W:35]

I'm new to the forums and wanted to quickly get an idea of what everyone's gaming tastes are. As to accommodate different types of gamers, I'll supply a couple options:


Dedicated Gamers: What are your three favorite video games from each year of the current decade?

Here are my selections as an example of what I'm looking for if you choose this option:

2011:

1) To the Moon
2) Portal 2
3) Sword & Sworcery EP

2012:

1) Papo & Yo
2) Thomas Was Alone
3) Spec Ops: The Line

2013:

1) Gone Home
2) Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
3) The Stanley Parable

2014:

1) Never Alone
2) Child of Light
3) The Migrant Trail

2015:

1) Undertale
2) Crypt of the NecroDancer
3) Read Only Memories

2016 (to date):

1) Firewatch
2) Oxenfree
3) That Dragon, Cancer


Light Gamers: What are your three favorite video games of all time?

Here are my selections as an example of what I'm looking for if you choose this option:

1) Undertale
2) Beyond Good & Evil
3) Gone Home


Please choose one of the above options (or both if you want) and supply your favorite picks!

Linnea said:

2016 (to date):

1) Firewatch

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Just have to ask WTF. I mean I liked the trailer bought it and played it all the way through in a few hours and thoroughly enjoyed it. But it has no depth, and no replay value, none of the choices you make have any bearing on the story line. It had so much potential but in the end was just a good way to waste a few hours.

Here are some of my favorite video games of all time:

- Fallout 4
- GTA V
- GTA San Andreas
- GTA Vice City
- Pokemon Black & White 2
- Pokémon Platinum Version
- The Last of Us
- Witcher 3
- DOOM 4
- SOMA
- Undertale
- Left 4 Dead 2
- The Walking Dead (Video Game)
- Final Fantasy VII
- Bravely Default
- Kirby 64
- Kirby's Return to Dreamland
- Super Smash Bros. Brawl
- Portal
- Half-Life
- Amnesia
- Professor Layton
- Ace Attorney

Crovax said:

Just have to ask WTF. I mean I liked the trailer bought it and played it all the way through in a few hours and thoroughly enjoyed it. But it has no depth, and no replay value, none of the choices you make have any bearing on the story line. It had so much potential but in the end was just a good way to waste a few hours.

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Yeah, that was a total letdown. The game took 3 hours to get me all worked up and then it ended.

Crovax said:

Just have to ask WTF. I mean I liked the trailer bought it and played it all the way through in a few hours and thoroughly enjoyed it. But it has no depth, and no replay value, none of the choices you make have any bearing on the story line. It had so much potential but in the end was just a good way to waste a few hours.

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I think maybe you and I value different things in video games. Having reached the point of having played well over a thousand titles over my lifetime at this point, for me a lot of the conventional criteria for what supposedly makes a game good and worth playing just doesn't really matter anymore. For example, the amount of content in a game and being able to control everything therein are not requisite, or even important, criteria for me anymore. Like Kentucky Route Zero, Firewatch is about supplying the player with an involving, participatory experience that carries emotional weight. It's value comes from its artistic merits more than from entertainment value. The writing and voice acting in Firewatch is some of the best in video games and it brings the characters and their relationships to life in a way that very few games succeed in doing. I'm one of those people who greatly appreciates that!

As a mystery, I will grant you that it's not the greatest of all time. Try Gone Home! But in its delivery and much of its approach to game play, Firewatch borrows a lot from Gone Home, even if it is sort of that game's inferior doppleganger. (The truth is that I don't think 2016 has had all that many truly outstanding games so far. For my taste. I'm doing my best with what's there!)

Anyway, rather than just critiquing my examples, why not actually follow the directions requested in the OP and list your favorite games?

Favorite games of all time? Well, Donkey Kong is right up there. It sucked up a lot of my quarters until Robotron came along.

I've got more hours (by far) into Civilization games than anything else and prefer III to the others.

Morrowind had a great story and really set a standard for open world RPG's.

Fallout 2 and Baldurs Gate: Shadow of Amn were fantastic games.

Fallout 4 and Skyrim are both keepers though the repetition of "radiant" quests can drag a little.

Well I haven't played any video game since Fallout 4 came out, but I used to play tons.

If I have to select 3 I'd say;

1) Mass Effect 2
2) Hitman: Contracts
3) Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory

Lutherf said:

Favorite games of all time? Well, Donkey Kong is right up there. It sucked up a lot of my quarters until Robotron came along.

I've got more hours (by far) into Civilization games than anything else and prefer III to the others.

Morrowind had a great story and really set a standard for open world RPG's.

Fallout 2 and Baldurs Gate: Shadow of Amn were fantastic games.

Fallout 4 and Skyrim are both keepers though the repetition of "radiant" quests can drag a little.

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Dont even mention that game its like meth, #notevenonce. I have it on my wii u virtual console and now I will have to play it. thanks...

TheGoverness said:

Here are some of my favorite video games of all time:

- Fallout 4
- GTA V
- GTA San Andreas
- GTA Vice City
- Pokemon Black & White 2
- Pokémon Platinum Version
- The Last of Us
- Witcher 3
- DOOM 4
- SOMA
- Undertale
- Left 4 Dead 2
- The Walking Dead (Video Game)
- Final Fantasy VII
- Bravely Default
- Kirby 64
- Kirby's Return to Dreamland
- Super Smash Bros. Brawl
- Portal
- Half-Life
- Amnesia
- Professor Layton
- Ace Attorney

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I really enjoy smart, anti-establishment games like Undertale, The Stanley Parable, Braid, and Spec Ops: The Line. :mrgreen:

Ain't doing it year by year, but here's my list, off the top of my head.

Fallout 3
Fallout: New Vegas
The Mass Effect Trilogy
The Last of Us
The Dragon Age series
Assassins Creed(Specifically the Ezio games)
The NHL series
The Splinter Cell Series(special shout out to Choas Theory)
Grand Theft Auto 5
Call of Duty 4:Modern Warfare
The Witcher 3
Civilization 5
Gone Home
Journey
The Walking Dead games(From TellTale)
Call of Duty:Black Ops
Metroid Fusion
Metroid Prime
Metroid:Zero Mission
Mario Kart Double Dash
The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
Bioshock Infinite
Portal
Tomb Raider(The most recent ones)

I don't know about doing a by-year breakdown but I'll just put down what I've played over the years (less now that I'm older and have four kids and all that[just less time and resources, not less desire]):

RPG/MMO:

All the Elder Scrolls: I'm probably one of the few people who have played the entire Elder Scrolls series at the time of their releases, to include Elder Scrolls Arena (which I think was the real kick starter for massive open world gaming). I remember being "sick" from HS just so I could stay home and play. Such a genre-breaking game.

All of the Baulder's Gate/Icewind Dale series. Great turn based game with great voice acting, storyline, and character development

I played Wow quite a bit and only really stopped due to time constraints.

Star Wars: Old Republic was another fun MMO. I never got around to going very far into the PvE aspect of it and just did PvP, for the most part.

Hack 'n Slash:

Played all the Diablo games from the first to the 3rd at their respective times of releases. I enjoyed all of them.

Path of Exile is pretty solid. It's 100% free to play and I've never bought a single thing in game. The passive skill tree is something so massive that there is nothing to compare it to. Their take on actual skills is interesting as they are gems you put into items, that also can be linked to support each other, which really makes for some interesting combos and no class is pigeon-holed into a very narrow role.

RTS:

Played, and enjoyed, all the Starcraft games at time of release. Starcraft probably has the best online culture/competition.

Played, and enjoyed, all the warcraft RTSs'

Age of Empires: great for more realistic RTS


MOBA:

This is one area that I've only toed the waters a little bit. Seems like a fun genre but just haven't gotten there for some reason. There are some interesting developments into 3D MOBAs, like Paragon and Smite (which I played a litttle).

I never got into FPSs that much.

There are other games I'm not sure how to categorize:

I've played all of the Civilizations and put quite a few hours into them.

I've played two of the Total War titles, the original Shogun and the newest Warhammer. Both were fun.


Most of my gaming now is on my phone:

Clash of Clans: I played this quite a bit but am currently taking a break, not sure if I'll get back to it or not.

Summoner's War: This is the game I'm actually playing the most right now. It's just one of those collect and evolve monster games but it's very developed and has a lot of different things to do in the game. I've been playing for quite a while now and am no where near end game.

I'm sure I've missed a lot but that's it for now.

Fishking said:

Path of Exile is pretty solid. It's 100% free to play and I've never bought a single thing in game. The passive skill tree is something so massive that there is nothing to compare it to. Their take on actual skills is interesting as they are gems you put into items, that also can be linked to support each other, which really makes for some interesting combos and no class is pigeon-holed into a very narrow role.

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I'm playing PoE now as my primary game and I am quite liking it. The only issue (which is also a plus) so far is that even with the wiki and everything else the interactions of skill gems is poorly explained and works more like a laboratory to settle on effective synergies.

I would also love to re-spec my character just days after the reset and I can't. I have everything I need for the ultra-cheesy Flame Totem Chieftain minus the proper passive skills...

jmotivator said:

I'm playing PoE now as my primary game and I am quite liking it. The only issue (which is also a plus) so far is that even with the wiki and everything else the interactions of skill gems is poorly explained and works more like a laboratory to settle on effective synergies.

I would also love to re-spec my character just days after the reset and I can't. I have everything I need for the ultra-cheesy Flame Totem Chieftain minus the proper passive skills...

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Yes...I haven't found a solid resource to maximize the character. I've picked this game back up and have been having the most fun on my level 42 witch. I have spec'd her out to have extra summonables and to increase their health, resistance, speed/damage, ect.

I can bring out 7 skeletons, 5 zombies, 2 specters, and 1 chaos golem. Then I'm launching fireballs (which I also spec'd for) and a fire resistance debuff aura. She just got through the game and is now back at the beginning on the next difficulty level.

Fishking said:

Yes...I haven't found a solid resource to maximize the character. I've picked this game back up and have been having the most fun on my level 42 witch. I have spec'd her out to have extra summonables and to increase their health, resistance, speed/damage, ect.

I can bring out 7 skeletons, 5 zombies, 2 specters, and 1 chaos golem. Then I'm launching fireballs (which I also spec'd for) and a fire resistance debuff aura. She just got through the game and is now back at the beginning on the next difficulty level.

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I'm at the same point, actually, but my Chieftain is level 45. I don't sweat the config much at this point because level cap is 100 and I will get all the totem skills eventually. What I really need to fix is surivability. My armor is a mish mash

Your Star said:

Ain't doing it year by year, but here's my list, off the top of my head.

Fallout 3
Fallout: New Vegas
The Mass Effect Trilogy
The Last of Us
The Dragon Age series
Assassins Creed(Specifically the Ezio games)
The NHL series
The Splinter Cell Series(special shout out to Choas Theory)
Grand Theft Auto 5
Call of Duty 4:Modern Warfare
The Witcher 3
Civilization 5
Gone Home
Journey
The Walking Dead games(From TellTale)
Call of Duty:Black Ops
Metroid Fusion
Metroid Prime
Metroid:Zero Mission
Mario Kart Double Dash
The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
Bioshock Infinite
Portal
Tomb Raider(The most recent ones)

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Fallout 3 was also an awesome game but it doesn't run on Windows 10 so I'm kind of screwed there. New Vegas was a great play through but after the fight at the dam the only thing to do is wander around waiting for Caesar's assassins to spawn.

jmotivator said:

I'm at the same point, actually, but my Chieftain is level 45. I don't sweat the config much at this point because level cap is 100 and I will get all the totem skills eventually. What I really need to fix is surivability. My armor is a mish mash

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Lol...that's what's so nice about my witch. I just run around and behind my wall of minions. I think there are some good guides on youtube that you can look at.

Fishking said:

Lol...that's what's so nice about my witch. I just run around and behind my wall of minions. I think there are some good guides on youtube that you can look at.

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I sort of understand your config because I run Vaal Summon sometimes. The only downside to that gem is that the minions that bosses summon don't count towards the soul count so it is useless in boss fights.

One day I will have my dual fire totem build and the game will almost play itself.

jmotivator said:

I sort of understand your config because I run Vaal Summon sometimes. The only downside to that gem is that the minions that bosses summon don't count towards the soul count so it is useless in boss fights.

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But they still count for bodies to use for zombies, if you do it fast enough. Skeletons are free summon, and so is my golem. Oh...I forgot I also have the guardian. That thing, so far, pretty much never dies. I use solid unique items for it and if you get a really nice 2h it puts out good damage.

Alpha Centauri (Sid Meyer's)
TF2
X-Com (pretty much all except Enforcer, The Bureau and Interceptor; new X-Coms need mods such as Long War)
PirateZ (mod of OpenX-Com)
Fallout (pretty much all but the console version of Brotherhood of Steel)
Final Fantasy 6 (Woolsey translation Kefka makes it)

Battlefield 2 is iffy; ****tons of fun, but jets were way too strong which made it suffer a little.

Honourable mention goes to Stasis; one of the best adventure games I've yet played (if not the best) and the atmosphere was an incredible fusion of Halflife and Aliens, though the ending was a bit disappointing.

Eternal Darkness was a great mythos/Lovecraftian horror/adventure/action game. I don't think it's aged particularly well, but I definitely count it as one of the best of its genre, at least at the time.

Dear Esther was an awesome narrative game and probably the best one I've played, but I don't think it quite makes my favs due to a lack of replayability and overall mileage it provides in terms of playtime.

Overwatch is very likely to make my favs once I get around to playing it.

Give me a good MMORPG along the lines of Warhammer: Online and I'll be a happy camper for a year or so. If I can't have that, I'll take a good single-player RPG like Dragon Age: Inquisition.

But, until something new in those genres come along, I'll be Poking along. (Pokemon Go)

1. Metal Gear Solid
2. Parasite Eve II
3. Parasite Eve
4. Halo: Combat Evolved
5. Mass Effect
6. Mass Effect 2
7. Mass Effect 3
8. Gran Turismo
9. Resident Evil
10. Resident Evil 2
11. Resident Evil 3: Nemesis
12. Silent Hill 2
13. Eternal Darkness

The top 5 of that list aren't necessarily in order.

Abbazorkzog said:

1. Metal Gear Solid
2. Parasite Eve II
3. Parasite Eve
4. Halo: Combat Evolved
5. Mass Effect
6. Mass Effect 2
7. Mass Effect 3
8. Gran Turismo
9. Resident Evil
10. Resident Evil 2
11. Resident Evil 3: Nemesis
12. Silent Hill 2
13. Eternal Darkness

The top 5 of that list aren't necessarily in order.

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Oh ****, yeah, Eternal Darkness was amazing; I'm not sure if it's quite a fav, but it deserves honourable mention at least.

Surrealistik said:

Oh ****, yeah, Eternal Darkness was amazing; I'm not sure if it's quite a fav, but it deserves honourable mention at least.

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Yeah the 'Insanity Meter' was game mechanics gold. Have yet to see another game utilize that.

Oh yes, and Blade Runner (the adventure game), and I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream.

Currently:

GTAV Online (Fridays...with friends...usually drunk...and up to 250k civilian kills)
OOTP (going on 15 years)
No Man's Sky